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Mine just arrived! Thank you Intrada!
Sorry to hear this Chris Rimmer, it really is a bummer. I'm hoping you will get it quickly without any charges. I'm in a bit of a dilemma now because it's supposed to be a Birthday present for me and my Birthday is not until early November!!! I'm looking at the package now and wondering how the heck I can hold out that long!? I might have to persuade herself to give me a different Birthday present, hee hee, otherwise you will definitely get to hear your copy before me!
Gosh Niall, go ahead and play the CDs!
You're not getting any younger you know! 
I'm really enjoying the music, taking my time playing it. Let us know what you think.
Well PFK, I have opened the box and I put the photos on my Facebook site! I will start listening to the CDs in the morning when the neigbours are out, I can wait that long, and I'll only be another day older, hee hee!
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Mine just arrived! Thank you Intrada!
Glad you got it before THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.  Enjoy !
Looking forward to hearing THE THIEF OF BAGDAD...soon I hope, time is ticking on you know!!!
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Yes, and remember Moses was 80 at the Red Sea and had another 40 years to go. Take your time, Niall!
I will Howard, I will! I'm not quite at the 80 mark yet but the clock is ticking and as my father used to always say "time and tide waits for no man", except Moses maybe!
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I have received the excellent box set already on Saturday and what is really interesting and fascinating is that all these rumours about a second original recording in stereo which should have taken place a few months after the first one in mono in 1956 and which we have taken for granted all the time here on this board are not true at all.
In fact, there was only one original recording for the film (originally on a three channel master) which then was also used for the mono double LP album. So what is heard on disc 4 comes from exactly the same source as what can be heard in the original recording on disc 1-3.
Doug Fake has this to say in the "tech talk" of the booklet:
"Creating a pleasing and convincing stereo image from the original three-channel masters was a challenge because the original engineers had not intended them for a stereomix - the soundtrack of the original theatrical release was monaural. Elmer Bernstein himself stated, in writing for "Film/TV Music" in 1956, that the score was mixed to a 'single channel', and I have not been able to cite documented evidence of a magnetic stereo or Perspecta 1956 theatrical mix ever being made (within Paramount, at Todd-AO or elsewhere), only mono optical. Even the Projection Instructions make no mention of any other sound system. Consequently, any directional sound seems to be a happy by-product that we have been able to exploit nearly 60 years later. It may also partly explain why the original soundtrack, as heard in the film, was only ever issued on mono records and why the same music was re-recorded for stereo specifically following introduction of the stereo LP in 1958."
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Received it in the mail today. First thing I noticed was how impressive the package was designed. This is my first box set and it is worth it. The only other box set I still have my eyes is the Star Trek TOS. Maybe one of these days.
I hope you get "the Star Trek TOS" db, It's a great set, well worth investing in, it will give you many, many hours of listening pleasure!
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2016 - 2:51 PM
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By: |
hal_jackson
(Member)
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I have received the excellent box set already on Saturday and what is really interesting and fascinating is that all these rumours about a second original recording in stereo which should have taken place a few months after the first one in mono in 1956 and which we have taken for granted all the time here on this board are not true at all.
In fact, there was only one original recording for the film (originally on a three channel master) which then was also used for the mono double LP album. So what is heard on disc 4 comes from exactly the same source as what can be heard in the original recording on disc 1-3.
Doug Fake has this to say in the "tech talk" of the booklet:
"Creating a pleasing and convincing stereo image from the original three-channel masters was a challenge because the original engineers had not intended them for a stereomix - the soundtrack of the original theatrical release was monaural. Elmer Bernstein himself stated, in writing for "Film/TV Music" in 1956, that the score was mixed to a 'single channel', and I have not been able to cite documented evidence of a magnetic stereo or Perspecta 1956 theatrical mix ever being made (within Paramount, at Todd-AO or elsewhere), only mono optical. Even the Projection Instructions make no mention of any other sound system. Consequently, any directional sound seems to be a happy by-product that we have been able to exploit nearly 60 years later. It may also partly explain why the original soundtrack, as heard in the film, was only ever issued on mono records and why the same music was re-recorded for stereo specifically following introduction of the stereo LP in 1958."
I always suspected the mono LP used the same recording sessions - but I know in one case it may be different takes. "Word of God" on Intrada disc #2 isn't the same take take used on the Dot mono LP. The LP features a take where the one of the violinist comes in too early during the transition from A major to F-sharp minor (the cue starts slowly with high strings on an A major chord, then it shifts to F-sharp major (this is the God theme played slowly). The film take doesn't have the mistake. Very subtle but it has to be a different take.
I listened to the mono LP last night (disc #4 at least) and really liked the sound on it - it has such a good pure sound.
Interesting how the mono LP uses a different version of BIthia's bathing music - notable featuring bass flute. In the film, it's either an alto or regular flute.
I've never liked that 1966 LP, mainly because the recording just isn't as vibrant as the 1960 recording. I will probably listen to mainly the film tracks (discs 1-3) at this point. The 1960 LP sure has a beautiful stereo sound. I had a later issue of it (I think it said Paramount Records) but I later got the Dot album - which is so similar to the mono LP cover, one had to look for the phrase "STEREOPHONIC MUSIC from..." etc.
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Posted: |
Sep 30, 2016 - 5:39 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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In these last 15 Golden years of score releasing there have been many an expanded epic release by major composers like Miklos Rozsa, Alfred Newman, Franz Waxman, etc. These usually were accompanied by a nice batch of new music and mixed in with a certain amount of, what Thor would call, repetitive and unnecessary cues. But my expectation for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS was not the same. The thematic material was so dense on just what was released previously I actually had high hopes about this one. And, man, was I not disappointed. Someone on here mentioned that certain themes are just variations and it gives the illusion of a lot of thematic material. Well you could have fooled me, of the 12 surviving piano demos of his leitmotifs (all of which are full blooded themes) only 2 are repetitions. Indeed many of these are not given enough time to develop as they weave in and out of the constantly changing melodrama. Without a doubt Bernstein worked his ass off on this score.
But what did surprise me was the reason I felt Elmer did all this does not even exist in the booklet ( a very beautiful elaborate one). According to it Bernstein was tooling along doing major studio and B pictures (no explanation why he would do both) when he got the Golden opportunity to do this through a series of happy accidents. Well no. After doing a few major studio films ending with SUDDEN FEAR he was blacklisted after which no major studio would hire him and “friends” would cross the street when they saw him coming. He told this story endless times. The only work he could get was as a dance rehearsal pianist (no credits involved there)or scoring extremely low budget films distributed by companies with names like Realart, Astor or Lippert. But talent will out. Being a dance pianist gets him jobs writing dance music, notably for PETER PAN on Broadway and OKLAHOMA the film. Rodgers and Hammerstein personally produced the latter and couldn’t care less about the blacklist. Agnes DeMille, the choreographer on both was mightily impressed and managed to get the powers that be to wangle an interview with her uncle Cecil. He needed dance music for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Elmer tells of being grilled and then lectured for an hour on being an American and finally given the official blessing from the man who helped create the black list. Then, as the booklet picks up the story Victor Young states he is ill and overworked and Elmer inherits the job.
But think about it. Any composer would feel the pressure of doing such an important high profile film but Elmer had more at stake. If Cecil thought his music was good but he could do better with an old vet and dropped him he could very well be waiting until the 60s for his next assignment when the blacklist fell and the likes of Jerry Fielding could go back to work. He had a wife and family to take care of. He had to give his all on this particular score. So he wrote a plethora of very strong themes. Just listen to the piano versions in the boxset. They all have a beginning, middle and end. He instills in them both the flavor of what it accompanies AND the feeling it must possess. He literally micromanages every moment his music is in the film (which is most of it) to the point if you think of removing any of it, it will sap something out of the scene. The closest I could think of to compare with is GONE WITH THE WIND and Max Steiner could use many traditional tunes in that film to do the job. Even the alternates are self contained little musical worlds.
Ironically I went to a screening last weekend that absolutely reinforced my theory. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM screened in the large Granada theater in Santa Barbara. It was also done at the time we are talking about 1955. After all these years the first thing that hit me was how much music there is in it. We all know Frankie Machine but there is a theme for the neurotic Josh (Eleanor Parker), the put upon Molly (KimNovak) and the manipulative Louie (Darren McGavin). There is a theme for Clark Street in his old neighborhood. Even the source music blends and bounces off sub-characters like Molly’s beau. The only real repetition is each time when Frankie’s theme goes spiraling out of control as his addiction takes over. Each background has it’s own music that completes the portrait. You take any of it away you lose. No unnecessary music here. He treated THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM like IT might also make or break him. Both films are overscored. But nothing is overscoring if it works. ALL of this works. Later Elmer would secure his place in film history and would get back to normal scoring. But without a doubt his taste of being blacklisted informed the scores of the next ten years. His thorough scores of such varied projects as SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE BUCCANEER, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, SOME CAME RUNNING, THE MIRACLE, THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD showed the extra mile he took to secure his place.
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